Clothes-washer.



No. 807,004. PATENTED DEC. 12, 1905. E. M. WHITTBMORE.

CLOTHES WASHER.

APPLICATION FILED APRJS. 1904.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. EMMA M. WHITTEMORE, OF TROY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

CLOTHES-WASHER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 12, 1905.

\ To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, EMMA M. WHITTEMORE, a citizen 'of' the United States, residing at Troy, in the county of Cheshire and State of New Hampshire, have invented a new and useful Clothes-Washer, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to mechanical clothes- Washing devices, and has for its object to provide an improved device of this character in the nature of an implement capable of convenient manipulation by hand to pound and rub clothes and other articles contained in any character of receptacleas, for instance, a tub or pailwithout exposing the hands of the user to the wash-water and the articles being washed.

It is furthermore designed to provide for conveniently sousing the article up and down .in the water to rinse the same and also to remove the articles from the tub or pail without placing the hands in direct contact with the wet articles undergoing the cleansing operation.

With these and other objects in'view the present invention consists in the combination and arrangement of parts, as will be hereinafter more fully described, shown in the accompanying drawings, and particularly pointed out in the appended claim, it being understood that changes in the form, proportion, size, and minor details may be made within the scope of the claim without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of the clothes-washing implement of the present invention. Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken. through the rubbing-head of the device. Fig. 3 is a detail sectional view illustrating the manner of connecting the clotheslifting fork to the handle.

Like characters of reference designate corresponding parts in each and every figure of the drawings.

The present device includes a handle 1 in the form of a pole, which is provided at one end with a clothes-rubbing head 2 andat the opposite end' with a fork 3, adapted for use in picking up thearticles being washed, as will be hereinafter described. The handle is of such a length as to permit of the convenient use of the rubbing-head and the fork without requiring the user to stoop during the manipulation of the device. The rubbing-head is of sheet metal, preferably substantially circular and slightly concavo-convex in shape and provided with a plurality of parallel ribs 4, disposed transverselywith respect to the handle. These ribs are preferably formed by corrugations, which stiffen and strengthen the head and obviate the use of separate pieces to produce the required ribs. The head has a wave-line periphery rather than in the form of a continuous arc, thereby producing peripheral projections, which aid materially in the cleansing operation of the 1 head. To provide for connecting the rubbinghead to the handle, there is an elongated tubular socket member 5, fitted upon the handle and provided with a fork 6, the members of which are bent transversely across the under side of the handle, so that their terminals may rest flat against the concaved top or back of the head, to which they are connected by suitable fastenings 7 the heads of which are flush with the front or under side of the head, so as to avoid projections upon the rubbingface of the head. In addition to the forked members there is a brace 8, which extends from the socket with its outer end bowed between the rear portions of the forked members and connected to the head, as at 9, whereby a rigid connection is had between the head and the handle. At the opposite end of the handle the fork 3 is secured thereto in any suitable manneras, for instance, by having its shank 10 driven into the end of the handle, with the latter reinforced by a ferrule 11. The outer ends of the tines or members of the fork are enlarged, as at 12, to form feet, with the faces of the tines at one side ofthe fork concaved, as at 13, and merged into the adjacent ends of the feet, thereby to produce a hook-shaped fork.

In using the implement the clothes and other articles to be washed are placed in a tub, pail, or other receptacle, together with the Water and soap or suitable cleansing compound, after which the fork 3 may be employed to pound the articles and the head 1 used to rub the same without bringing the hands of the user into contact with the water and the articles being cleansed. It will now be understood that the ribbed or corrugated face of the head and the peripheral projections or convolute form of the head operate mechanically to loosen dirt particles from the clothes in a very simple and efficient manner, while the fork 3 may be employed to pick up and turn the clothes over so as to expose each and every article to the pounding oper- IIO ation of the fork and the rubbing operation of the head. Moreover, the fork may be employed to souse the clothing up and down to rinse the same and may also be effectually employed to pick up the clothing and remove the same from the tub, the hook shape of the fork aiding materially in picking up the articles being washed by reason of the tendency of the latter to cling more closely to a hooked fork than to a fork having straight tines.

. From the foregoing description it will be understood that the present invention combines in a single implement means forpounding the articles, means for rubbing the same, and also means for picking up the articles for convenience in sousing the same and in removing them from the tub or other receptacle. Furthermore, by locating the rubbing-head at one end of the handle and the poundingfork at the opposite end thereof either of these members may be readily used without interference by the other, and by having both of these members carried by the one handle the operator may quickly change from one to the other of said members without loss of time and without moving away from the tub.

Having thus described the construction and operation of my invention, what 1 claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 13-- A clothes-washer comprising a corrugated metallic plate which is bowed to produce a convexed under face and a concaved upper face, a handle set at an inclination to the radius of the concaved face of. the plate, and a fork carried by the handle with its prongssecured tothe concaved face of the plate, the corrugations of the plate extending transversely to the direction of concavity of the plate.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto aflixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

EMMA M. WHITTEMORE.

Witnesses:

ANNI SULLIVAN, CoRA M. STONE. 

